What’s new in GFI LANguard N.S.S. 5?

The information in this article applies to:

  • GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner 5

Article ID: KBID002051

Query keywords:

  1. Improved, more intuitive user interface.
  2. Vastly improved patch deployment – The new interface makes deploying patches much easier: Patches are automatically downloaded from the Microsoft website and download status is shown. You can now select which patches you wish to deploy on which computers. For each patch, you can change deployment parameters. The interface allows for easy access to bulletin information and has much better status reporting of patch deployment. Better stability  is offered through the use of a patch deployment agent. Deployment can be done under different credentials.
  3. Deploy custom software option – This option allows easy deployment of any type of software on remote computers, for example, virus update files or client software.
  4. Easy filtering of scan results data – GFI LANguard N.S.S. 5 makes analyzing/filtering scan results much easier. Click on one of the default filter nodes to show machines with high security vulnerabilities, for example, or machines missing a particular service pack. Easily customize existing filters or create a new, custom filter from scratch. You can also export scan results data to XML.
  5. You can now add filtering conditions items such as: operating system, host name, user logged in, domain, computer usage, TTL, MAC address, SNMP, UDP port, TCP port, Patch, Product and more. You can use operators like ‘is equal’ , ‘is installed’, ‘includes’ and so on. You can also customize which items must be shown/hidden in the report which shows the filter results. You can choose to apply the filters to the current scan or to a previously saved scan.
  6. Ability to create custom scanning profiles in which you can specify what information to scan for, for example: check which patches are installed or missing, which ports are open, what OS information or which vulnerabilities. You can also specify different parameters such as scanning delays, timeouts etc.
  7. Updated and expanded vulnerabilities database – Now also includes top SANS issues. New vulnerabilities can be downloaded automatically from the GFI site.
  8. Improved Linux/Unix security scanning – GFI LANguard N.S.S. 5 now includes an extensive set of Linux vulnerability checks. More will be added and will be available via automatic download from the GFI website.
  9. New SQL/Access database back end – All scan results are now saved to either a Microsoft Access database or a Microsoft SQL Server database, allowing administrators to easily create custom reports and perform trending analysis. A free reporting module will be made available over the coming 1 to 2 months, which will include many default reports.
  10. New script engine which is VBscript-compatible.
  11. Addition of a script debugger and editor which eases script creation, debugging and execution. Script results are shown in the integrated output window.
  12. Improved SQL Server audit tool.
  13. New tool - Enumerate users from Active Directory. This displays all users in Active Directory including account details such as full name, password settings, account status and description. You can also enumerate ‘contacts’ and highlight disabled or locked accounts.
  14. Improved scheduled scans with the ability to provide different credentials to be used for each scheduled scan. Improved alerting for differences found between scans. New architecture allows multiple scheduled scans with multiple profiles to be performed and concurrently with a scan triggered from the interface.
  15. Improved 'Enumerate computers' tool with better filtering abilities –You can filter based on operating system and installed services. Computers can be enumerated via Active Directory or via Windows Explorer.
  16. New, standardized updating procedure for new patches from Microsoft, new vulnerabilities discovered by GFI and notification of new builds. Checking for updates can be done automatically or manually.
  17. Improved DNS lookup tool with querying options for MX records, NS records, aliases and so on. Added support for querying of multiple DNS servers.
  18. Improved Whois tool which can query multiple Whois servers.
  19. Improved SNMP Walk and SNMP audit tools.